Originally Posted by
Mr. Vker
Sadly, this was our lowlight of the week. Went yesterday-private as you did. Didn't see anything-which is fine-they are wild animals. But the driver we had was terrible. Swells were 5-6 feet and he was flying across them so the whole boat came out of the water and slammed into the next wave. My finally had to say she was terrified-which really irritated me. I had to tell them to slow down. He was on his phone constantly. They didn't do anything but start the ride "with we are going to look for dolphins-no guarantee" and off we went. No other words from them-about where we were what we were seeing etc. We ended up cutting it 30 mins short. About 5 mins from the resort, he was on his phone again and crossed another boats wake so fast I nearly hit my head on the bimini.
I was really unhappy about the terrible experience and time wasted. I spoke to our butler (Shamiu-excellent). He had the water sports director meet us at the whale bar. They took care of it. But this experience was SO unlike anything we had all week anywhere else on the island. My wife's shoulder hurts today from slamming against the boat.
I’m sorry that it wasn’t such a positive experience for you, and I’m glad to see that the hotel made up for it with some sort of undisclosed service recovery as “they took care of it.”
That being said, complaining about big swells on the open ocean is much like complaining about turbulence on an airplane: it’s impossible to predict for certain and not uncommon at all. Also, going slower doesn’t necessarily make enduring big swells better or easier; often, it can make the motion and ride far worse and more chaotic, making it even more likely that people will get sick. Sometimes, the only way to deal with bigger swells is to plow through. Going slower might seem more prudent, but it can make it worse and also would take far longer to return!